Book Reviews

The Black Metal genre of music is one that lends itself well to horror and weird fiction. With darkness, misanthropy, and supernatural malignancy being cornerstones of the genre, there is fertile ground to work with. David Peak's Corpsepaint tills that ground beautifully.

Corpsepaint is the story of Max, the creative power behind the legendary black metal act Angelus Mortis. Together with Roland, his new drummer and fellow completely broken person, they travel to the deepest parts of the Ukraine to record a new album with the cult Black Metal band Wisdom of Silenus. There they learn that Wisdom of Silenus not only lives their music,but uses it to touch something beyond imagination. Something horrible and beyond world-ending.

Peak does a fantastic job of weaving the aesthetic of modern Black Metal into Corpsepaint. There isn't much of the Satanic current that fueled much of early Black Metal. Corpsepaint aligns itself with the anti-cosmic adversity and nihilism found more in today's Black Metal, while at the same time incorporating the primacy and brutality of Nature which touches much of the Black Metal that comes out of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. This synthesis creates a raw, grim environment for the story to evolve and mutate in.

Corpsepaint is very much story-driven. The characters are there to carry the story to its finality, not to show how they grow as people in the process. The chart showing who is a pawn of who at what time in Corpsepaint would be beautiful and complex to behold. Everyone has a doom to fulfill in this book, and some are vastly worst (or better, depending on who you talk to) than others.

In closing, I should add that you don't need to know the first thing about Black Metal to enjoy this book. There are no references that are going to go over your head. Peak does a great job of providing explanation when necessary without bogging down the flow of the story with exposition. To anyone who enjoy bleak, innovative tales of impending anti-cosmic evil, this is a pretty sure bet.

Corpsepaint can be purchased through Word Horde in paperback and ebook formats.